Feral Instincts
by Zachbot20
Summary: Kallista Angelbane is a twenty year old Tiefling woman who has spent her entire life living on a farm with her parents. She's always had a fascination with fire magic and an urge to explore the world. One night while returning from selling crops something happens that gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, but was it worth it?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Hello and thank you for taking interest in my story! This series will be based off the origin story of my D&amp;D character, and all the adventures she has before meeting up with her present day party.**

**I'd just like to point out that I'm an amateur writer and understand there are problems with my work. Please help me improve by leaving a comment about what I did well or what I could improve on.**

**If I can get at least five people who say they're interested in reading more I will write another chapter. Please enjoy!**

The distinct, piercing cry of a rooster came through the open window. Kallista rolled over and pulled her covers over her head with an irritated grunt. She knew she would have to get up eventually but wanted to stay in bed all day if she could have. The rooster cried out again, "Shut up!' she screamed out the window. Five minutes passed, then ten, eventually her mother burst through the door. "Kallista, get up! Your father needs you outside." She ripped the covers out of her grip, Kallista groaned and squinted her eyes, blinded by the light shining through the window. "-and what did I tell you about sleeping naked? You'll catch a cold!" "Mother if it were any hotter outside you'd be able to cook an egg on the ground." Ignoring that last statement, her mother put the blanket on a chair just out of Kallista's reach and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Kallista rolled over till she fell off the bed and onto the wooden floor with a thud, getting to her feet and stretching, she took a step forward and was immediately pulled back and fell on her butt. "What the-" Somehow her tail had gotten itself stuck under the mattress, she gave it a tug and it popped out, lashing back and whipping her in the face. She growled and fixed it, letting it go back to idly swishing back and fourth behind her. Grabbing her set of clothes for the day and scurried into the bathroom before anyone could see her in her current state. Now her family wasn't exactly wealthy, no one in Portsmouth was, but with recent developments in technology they could afford running water in their home. She turned on the shower and let it run for a moment while stepping in front of the narrow full body mirror she had begged her father to purchase and install. She wasn't half bad looking, she had her mother's bright red skin, not many Tieflings were fortunate enough to have such an even skin tone, as well as her father's ash black hair that fell just below her shoulders. She also had fairly large horns that came together in a slightly wide V shape, not her most feminine feature as she had gotten those large, man like horns from her father, but paired with her golden eyes and fairly athletic build from all the work she does around the farm; she figured herself a pretty strong, sexy young woman, twenty years young. She gave a smile and a nod to herself, quite happy with her appearance.

After the shower, she wandered down to the kitchen in a tank-top styled undershirt, a towel in one hand and her white T-shirt in the other as she toweled her hair dry and sat down. Her mother had set a bowl of oatmeal along with a few strips of bacon, an egg, and some water. She devoured the food and with a small burp, put on her shirt and walked towards the front door, "Thanks mom…" Grabbing her scythe, and shut the door behind her, squinting and covering her eyes to protect her vision while they adjusted. Her father was with the horse, tilling the ground. "Good, you're awake." He pointed to the wheat that was ready to be harvested. "Take your scythe and get the wheat harvested, then take it to the mill to be ground into flower. Sell a third of the product and bring the rest back. Depending on when you finish I might have more work for you." She sighed and grumbled something under breath. "What was that?" "Nothing Dad, I'll be happy to do it." She went over to the wheat field, it was a fairly large plot of land but she was quick with her Scythe, and she knew that if she worked hard, she'd have it all down and collected by three bells past noon. Staring at the field with a smirk and stretching her shoulders.

Kallista made quick work of the wheat, she was surprisingly adept with a scythe, going through the fields with speed and vigor, the crop falling swiftly and easily, it was as if she was dancing with the blade. Her father watched from a distance as she dashed around, he rolled his eyes but with a smirk. "Her methods are strange, but she does a damn good job."

After a break at high noon for lunch Kallista set back to work and finished an entire bell before what was predicted. Wiping her brow, she set her scythe aside as she finish cutting and stacking the wheat. "Dad I'm finished, I'm taking Max into town." Max was the other horse they had. She attached him to the wagon and dried herself off a little, she was getting quite sweaty from toiling away all day in the hot sun. Hopping on Max and riding across the small town to the windmill, she waved at some of townspeople who called out at her, the blacksmith, and the jeweller mainly. "Hey!" Kallista stopped the horse as the owner of the book store ran up to her. He smiled "Kallista, I have something you might want to see." She hopped down from the horse. "Like what Jayce?" Jayce gestured for her to follow him. Kallista sighed with relief as soon as she stepped inside the store. "Ahh… I see your latest shipment of cooling crystals arrived." He turned back towards her. "Yeah, I've got to keep my store comfortable during the season of fire. Keeps the customers coming in. Anyways come here." Jayce led Kallista into the back where he had a book with intricate designs all over it. Some patterns looked slightly demonic, others of fire. "Now I know you parents keep you away from magic, but you've also expressed to me your love of fire." Kallista had her eyes locked on the book. "—so yeah, here's a little something that might help you produce a flame larger than that of a candle." Kallista started to thumb through the pages. "Hellish Rebuke… Fire Storm… Flame Step." She looked through at more spells, enchantments and rituals. "Just make sure you don't burn down the house. Your parents will kill me if they if they find out you got the book from me." She gave Jayce a big hug. "I can't thank you enough. What do I owe you?" Kallista started to pull out a burlap bag with a few gold coins in it, Jayce motioned for her to put it away. "On the house, besides I don't think I'll be able to get anything for this anyways. No one here besides you is really into magic." Kallista nodded. "Thanks again, now I need to get going." Kallista snuck past Jayce's defences and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek to say thanks and jogged out, putting the book in one of the bags hanging off the horse saddle.

The church bell rang six times; Kallista had a big bag of gold coins hanging from her waist, and sacks of flower in the cart Max was pulling. The sun was starting to set and Kallista let out a big sigh of relief as it started to get cooler. She was almost home as the sun went down completely, all that was left was the glow of the sun over the horizon, she could still see though, as Tieflings excelled at seeing in low light. She stopped in front of the house, putting Max back in his stable. As she started to unload the flower, a sharp pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She stumbled forward a little but caught herself. A terrible headache began to overwhelm her. Stumbling through the door she fell to her knees, looking back out and up at the moon to get her bearings, but no moon stared back. Her mother and little brother ran up to her when they heard the sound of a body slumping to the floor. Her mother was in panic "Kallista!? What's wrong dear do you have a fever? Hit your head?" Kallista was too light headed to respond properly. "H-Headache…" Closing her eyes she blacked out, the last thing she heard was a growl and her mother screaming.

Kallista found herself sprawled out on the floor of the living room, she was soaked to the bone in sweat. Her head was booming and she couldn't find the strength to get up. Inhaling deeply, she gagged as she got a lung full of a horrid, indescribable smell, almost making her throw up on the spot. Her eyes burst open and her heart skipped a beat. She wasn't soaked in sweat, it was blood. Her hand clasped across her mouth to keep herself from screaming, and the harsh taste of iron filled her mouth. Looking down her white shirt was blending almost perfectly with her skin color, she had more dried blood in her hair and all the way up from her hands to her elbows. Staring at her hands she started to shake, holding onto her left shoulders, the dried blood crumbling and floating down to the floor like miniature sheets of paper as she shifted. At that moment Kallista noticed the strand of flesh that was resting on her shoulder. She reflexively whipped it across the room. At the same time getting a quick glance of the room. It all started to stand out, the blood splatters on the walls, the ceiling, and the chunks of flesh and crushed bone on the floor. There was a head. Her brother's head, Kallista couldn't hold it in any longer and screamed at the top of her lungs, shutting her eyes tight. Slumping to the floor beginning to hyper-ventilate till the world faded to black.

It was evening out when she sat up with a pained groan, only being able to tell because of the sound of crickets in the tall grass outside. She still had her eyes shut and didn't want to open them, she might not ever, not willing to ever face the horrors that were just past her eyelids. Kallista couldn't quite understand it, but even with her eyes shut she still had some sort of sense of direction and depth of field. Almost as if she was seeing through sonar, relying completely on the remaining four senses. She could see the world around her in outlines without color but still with great detail. She looked down at her hands, the blood was still there but it was unexplainable how she could still notice it.

Still feeling a little light headed she wobbled and leaned against the wall while regaining her balance, breathing deeply in a pointless attempt to calm herself. "Easy Kallista, you only… murdered your entire family…" Almost throwing up once more after finishing that sentence. She leaned back against the wall with a sigh, furring her brow as she felt a pair of lumps under her shirt near her shoulder blades. "The hell…?" She reached back down her shirt and felt something soft and… furry? Kallista rushed over to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Standing in front of the mirror she stared at herself. She could easily point out the smallest details about herself, the only difference being the contrast of black, white, and greys that made it possible to tell colors apart, like the contrast of the blood on her hands and her skin, as the blood was a dark grey, but not as dark as the red of her skin. Kallista slowly pulled her shirt off and set it aside, then did the same with her undershirt. She turned around and looked over her shoulder, finding two small wings, resembling those of a bat, sprouting out from between her shoulder blades. "Those were not there yesterday morning…" Perhaps she should have been slightly more alarmed about this, but they have a certain appeal. Regardless, she'd have to keep this a secret.

A few bells had past, the smell of death and decay was flooding the house and Kallista opened up a window. She had been leafing through a small collection of books that her father kept in a locked cabinet, or at least used to. Most of the books were useless, but some were on the subject of magic, and one was a larger, ornate book about her family tree, she had always asked her father if she could read through them, but he would often avoid the conversation or change the subject. Now she had all the time in the world to read, but set the book aside for now.

Another two bells had past. Using what she could remember from the previous night, which was next to nothing, what she had gathered today, along with a few key snippets that she pulled out from the books on the arcane arts. What all this boiled down to was simple, but as soon as it dawned on Kallista she felt goose bumps ripple across her skin. "A curse… why am I cursed?!" She shouted out, voice trembling in her panic. Who or whatever that had somehow placed a curse on her, must have let it lay dormant for years, this was again deduced from her earlier readings, a book on arcane curses called this ailment "Demon Spawn". Its symptoms being feral behavior in the afflicted, but only on new moons. Kallista leaned back against a wall and pulled her knees up to her chest and stared at the ceiling. "Alright Kallista… lets go over things one more time. I've been cursed with something that has lain dormant inside me for years, no idea how long exactly. On the new moon I turned crazy and… killed my family… there is no known cure and I'm supposed to stop ageing…" Something snapped in the back of her mind, all the supressed feelings of pain and sorrow flooded out like a river dam bursting. Eventually Kallista slumped over, crying herself to sleep.

The poor girl was plagued with horrible nightmares that night, visions of herself slaughtering her family mercilessly, them begging for her to snap out of it. Dozens of slightly different scenarios played in her head, making her unsure of which one was what actually happened, she could never be sure. The only details that really changed from dream to dream were her methods of slaughter, each one making her more and more frightened of herself. Each vision depicting Kallista with large fangs, talons replacing her fingernails, and the miniature batwings on her back replaced with full sized demon wings.

She jolted awake as the rooster outside cried out. Kallista found herself drenched, jerking up slightly before noticing it really was only sweat this time. Kallista forced herself up and dragged her feet over to the bathroom, taking a cold shower to try and snap to alertness, possibly to calm her nerves as well. It did little to help, but at least she was awake, clean and out of bloody clothing. Leaving the bathroom, the smell of death had subsided slightly, but still assaulted her nostrils as she shut the door behind her, causing her to jolt a little. The living room was still showered with blood and body parts. She knew she couldn't hide this forever, within another day or two people would start questioning her family's absence and possibly come looking for them. She could only hope that if there was any screaming that night, and there probably was, that it wasn't loud enough to attract the attention of the neighbors. Still, she was more concerned about the safety of others, rather than her own. What set off her attacks? The book only said new moons, but she couldn't be sure it was the only cause, it made sense to her that getting angry might provoke a similar response, but she wouldn't be testing that theory anytime soon, hopefully.

Another day passed, Kallista had spent all her time with that pile of books, as well as the one Jayce had given her. She learnt two things that day; while going through her family tree there was written documentation of a rather unsettling event that had taken place while her grandparents were still alive and young. It spoke of a conflict between her relatives and a certain unknown order of mages. Whether this had to do with her affliction or not was uncertain. Furthermore she had spent a good portion of the day improving her basic mastery of fire magic. Having managed to reliably conjure fireballs, and set things on fire by pointing at them. Although she still needed a lot of practice to become truly comfortable with these abilities, and possibly learn more. Eventually the chirping of crickets alerted her to nightfall, Kallista turned in for a proper nights rest, knowing that starting tomorrow and her life would get a lot more difficult.

She dreamt of nothing that night, except for a vision of the starry night sky.

The next morning everything was a blur. She rubbed her eyes, but still didn't open them. It was becoming almost second nature to keep her eyes closed. Kallista had a pretty good picture of what she had to do. Maybe, just maybe that order of mages that her grandparents had some sort of running into with had something to do with all this. It was a long shot, but she needed somewhere to start, and had no other leads. "That settles it." Kallista prepared a knapsack with a few basic necessities: A bedroll, some food, three books along with a vile of ink and a quill. One being the book on her family, the book on fire magic, and last an empty journal for anything she needed to write. She topped it off with a water-skin, the sack of gold she got for selling the sacks of flower the other day, and a map that she had marked one specific location on. Setting the bag aside, she put her Scythe next to it, taking that along should her magic ever (and probably will) fail her. She had searched for any kind of armor she could find in the house, but came up empty; she lived with a family of farmers, not fighters. Kallista waited for a good portion of the day, running through her plan over and over again in her head and trying to relax. Dusk fell and she gave herself a reassuring nod. Kallista threw on her knapsack and over that a burlap cloak, it wouldn't keep her warm but it would keep her dry in the event of rain, not that cold temperature was really an issue this time of year anyways. Taking her scythe, Kallista took one last look around the house, and at the decaying remains of her family through her new lease on life. "I will avenge you all… from myself… idiot." Leaving the house she conjured a fireball in her right hand and lobbed it through the window. The inside quickly went up in flames, followed by the rest of the house.

Turning away and pulling the hood of her cloak up, she quickly ran into the night, away from Portsmouth, away from her old life. The only thing left outside the house, far enough away so that it wouldn't catch fire was a note, on it written. "I'm sorry—"; a tear had visibly stained the bottom corner. With that, Kallista was gone deep into the nearby forest, her old life left to die and shrivel into ashes into nothing as the fire roared.

"I'm sorry…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Although my first chapter didn't get as much feedback as I'd hoped, I still got enough to coax me into writing the second chapter and editing it. I apologize for the long wait, and please of you enjoy this story please leave a review, criticism is welcome. It helps me write better.**

The next four days were spent travelling the dusty roads, Kallista may have grown up on a farm but the long walks and short rests were taking a toll on her, and being the smart person she was, hadn't packed enough food for the journey to the next city, Farshadow. Having already been there once or twice with her father, the huge city seemed a lot closer by horse, why she hadn't thought to take one was beyond her, shrugging it off and continued to walk, leaving herself to the mercy of the sun.

The sun was beginning to set by the time she arrived in Farshadow, but this huge city was far from settling down for the night. Walking up to the main gates, Kallista was stopped by two guards clad in heavy plate-armor, each bearing a large halberd. She couldn't see their faces because of their helmets, but it didn't matter, one of them stood out, he was colossal. Just by the body shape Kallista could tell the man in the armor was a Goliath. Kallista was a decent height, not too tall, not too short for a woman her age, but she felt so small looking up at the easily eight foot tall figure. "State your business." Kallista couldn't lie to herself, she was slightly intimidated and it showed. "Uh... I'm just passing through, get some traveling supplies and maybe earn a little coin…" The Goliath took a moment to look her over. "Alright, just watch yourself in there and keep an eye on your pockets." The other guard made a hand signal up to a human on the stone walls and the gate opened.

She didn't have to walk far before she was in the thick of things, people of all different colors, shapes and sizes each going in their own direction, however there was a distinct lack of Tieflings. In fact out of the corner of her eye she could see certain people looking at her funny, sometimes it was a glance, or a long stare, but as soon as she turned her head towards them, they'd all look away. Trying not to think much of it she just kept going, but it did bother her as her father always told her to be wary of anyone outside of Portsmouth. He said that most people didn't take too kindly to their people. That Tieflings were bad omens, and something bad would always be left in their wake. In retrospect she could somewhat sympathise, her grandparents having that 'dispute' so long ago, that alone must have caused some sort of a stir. Kallista wasn't off the hook either, her being cursed and all. However she should be stable for a few weeks, new moons only happened once a month or so. Still, she had to be careful and play her cards right around here. Looking around, she quickly spotted a hanging sign that marked a general store. Heading inside, it was a huge relief to feel the cool air flow past her, stores with cooling crystals were a rare sight in Portsmouth, but maybe they were more common in richer cities. A larger woman came out from the back of the store, dark orange scales for skin, and massive hands with blunt claws, she looked pretty strong and a little bulky, a Dragonborn. "Hey there, can I help you?" Kallista walked up to the counter. "Uh, yeah. Do you sell trail rations, and possibly a compass?" The Dragonborn put up a finger then disappeared into the back of the store, coming back with a compass and ten days' worth of rations. "That'll be ten gold coins." Kallista took out the small sack of coin she had and dropped the money on the counter before taking her items and stuffing them in her bag. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find an inn and possibly a library, would you?" The lady looked back up from under the counter and took the gold. "The Golden Mantle is two blocks west, and the city archives is near the water fountain in the town square." Kallista nodded and turned. "You've been most helpful, thank you."

•••

The night was spent at the Golden Mantle and Kallista was out on the streets at eight bells in the morning, making straight for the library. The City library wasn't something to be taken lightly, it was a massive stone building with ornamental pillars in front of marble steps that led up to two large, ornate doors. Despite their appearance, the doors parted easily and silently, and shut in the same manner after she entered. For a moment Kallista wasn't sure if she was even in Farshadow anymore, as this place was a far cry from the bustling city outside those ornate doors. It was almost deafly silent, and was well lit with candles all over the place, some on reading desks, but most were on the walls. She was almost startled by the older woman sitting behind a rather large desk that was slightly to the right of the entrance, she was reading something and didn't pay any attention to Kallista who just wandered right by and into the massive library. There were rows after rows of bookshelves, each filled to the brim and went up to the ceiling which was at least two stories up. The library was relatively empty compared to what it could hold, but there were a few people of all races scattered around the countless reading desks and bookshelves.

Going up to one of the rows of bookshelves, Kallista felt the brass plate nailed on the side with her fingers, it read "TRAPS – TREES". It would take an eternity and then some to search through all these books by hand. Sighing and looking around she spotted a large sign on a far wall, all she could make out from this distance was "IND-" but that was all she needed to see to know that was where she'd start her search for books. As Kallista approached the sign she nodded to herself, it read "INDEX" as she had thought. Passing through the archway, the walls of books turned into walls of small cabinets, but the room was much smaller. Looking around, each row of cabinets had another brass plate above them, starting at A and going down to Z. She located the one with S written on it and started through the row. "Sa… Sb…" It took a while but she got down to SP, and found "Spell books, isle 642-653", then put the card back and quickly walked off. One could almost work up a sweat just crossing the massive library, but she made it to isle 642.

It wasn't long before she was practically drowning in spell books, and these were only the ones in reach, a rolling ladder was to the side, allowing access to the higher shelves. Kallista had pulled aside three books on fire magic and was still looking around, taking the ladder through the isles to reach all the books she could ever dream to read. After about an hour, Kallista was still just looking through the rows aimlessly when she saw in the corner of her eye a book bound in black leather on one of the top rows. Grabbing the ladder she quickly made her way up to it and took the book out, it looked really old and hadn't been touched in ages, as when she opened the book and leafed through the yellowed pages, a miniature dust storm leaped out and almost caused her to lose her balance and fall off the ladder.

After climbing down, she put the ladder in its place, took her small stack of books and went to a rather secluded reading table, putting her bag aside and brushing some hair out of her face then immediately jumping for the leather bound book. There wasn't any title written on the front, instead it was just decorated with intricate designs, some which were pentagrams, others were indescribable, but it all came together to make quite the eye-candy, as all the designs on the cover were filled in with gold so they would really stand out against the black background. Opening the book, she leafed through the pages again with her thumb, but this time something didn't quite make sense. The first few pages had writing on the yellowed parchment, but the majority of the book was just full of blank pages. Kallista furrowed her eyebrows and stopped on a blank page and ran her fingers over it, nothing revealed itself to her. Flipping back to the start of the book, the very first page had a large pentagram drawn on it, with two circles enclosing it all and all sorts of designs filled the gaps in the star and in between the two circles. The more she examined it, the more this book started to make her nervous, but it didn't completely deter her as she flipped to the next page. Spilled all over the next two pages was a mix of text with a few smaller pictures scattered throughout, depicting another pentagram as well as certain plants and other stuff. The text spoke of a powerful "Infernal Spirit" that could be summoned, and in its presence, one could trade for powerful magic, however it also warned of the side effects that could surface with time or if the "vessel" wasn't strong enough of will to contain this power, namely insanity and all its _wonderful _subcategorises. The rest was instructions on how to set up the ritual and all the other steps that needed to be completed before the spirit would be summoned. Nowhere did it explain what all the blank pages were for and that bothered her slightly. At first Kallista would have just wrote this off as some sort of joke, but the more she read, the more this all seemed real and as crazy as it was, she was contemplating giving this a shot, her curiosity driving her to continue more than ever.

•••

After quite some time had passed, Kallista jerked awake and looked around in a slight panic that quickly settled when she realized she was exactly where she had nodded off in the first place. Fixing her hair and wiping the drool off her face, she quickly recomposed herself, closing the three books she had open around herself and stacked them up, but left the special black leather book aside. Quickly putting the other books back in their place, Kallista went back to the table with the book and her bag on it. Scanning around the massive library, she was fairly certain she was alone in this general area. After another casual look around, she slowly slid the book into her bag and settled it towards the bottom, before slowly strolling out.

•••

Back at the Golden Mantle, Kallista paid for another night then locked herself up in her room. Throwing her bag on the bed and pulling out her new book, she then sat cross-legged on the wooden floor with the book in her lap, she also had her journal and quill. Flipping to an empty page and taking the quill then dipping it in the ink. Looking back and forth between the two books, Kallista copied down all the things she needed for this ritual, along with a few other notes and self-pointers, before setting the journal on the nightstand for the ink to dry. After studying the steps a few more times, Kallista closed her book and packed up before settling in for the night.

•••

It was drizzling lightly out on the streets of Farshadow the following morning, accompanied with occasional thunder and dark gloomy clouds. Kallista pulled up the hood on her cloak and kept her head down and just trudged through the streets. The rain didn't seem to deter her much, nor did the occasional staring, some surprised like they've never seen a Tiefling before, others malicious. Being too occupied to care, she just continued down the street and arrived at a small alchemy shop in a darker little corner of the city.

As soon as she entered the dimly lit, slightly damp shop, a taller Elf came out from the back of the shop, she had vibrant green eyes and long blonde hair, her pale skin contrasted strongly with the deep black of her long robe and wide brim hat that ended in a point, one would probably scream and call her a witch but Kallista was in no position to judge. As soon as the Elf saw Kallista a wide grin spread across her face, it looked more mischievous than anything else. "Welcome to Nyf's Cauldron, I'm Nyf. How may I help you today, Tiefling?" Kallista rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and put it on the counter. "I need a few items..." Nyf took the paper and unfolded it, after taking a moment to read it over, her mischievous grin returned and it was even bigger than before. "Although it's none of my business, I certainly am curious. I can tell that you're clearly not brewing a potion, this is for some sort of ritual, yes?" Kallista froze up momentarily and Nyf just started to laugh. "You look like a child who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar." Kallista took a moment to recompose herself and cleared her throat. "Can I just have my items please?" Nyf calmed down a little, before leaning on the counter and looking at Kallista while twirling her finger through her golden locks. "Tell you what my little devil." The way Nyf called Kallista a devil didn't seem to come out as an insult, in fact it seemed like a compliment. "I've got a deal for you. I'll provide you with all the stuff on this list, and a place to perform your little ritual for free." Kallista opened her mouth to say something but Nyf cut her off. "On the condition that you fill me in on what it is exactly you're doing, _and_ you let me watch." Kallista sighed. "You promise not to tell anyone?" Nyf nodded. "Alright…" Nyf turned around and gestured over her shoulder for Kallista to follow her to the back of the shop.

•••

Nyf sat there with her head resting in her hands, eyes wide. "So you believe that this spirit will give you the power needed to avenge your family?" Kallista nodded. "But you killed your family." Kallista rolled her eyes internally. "We've been over this—"Nyf cut in "Right-Right-Right. The mages that you have no idea where to find." "I admit, my chances are bleak but I can't just sit around." Nyf just stared at the floor for a moment. "I still don't get why you keep your eyes shut." Kallista stood up abruptly. "Oh it doesn't matter! Can we just get started?" Nyf put up her hands then stood up. "Calm it. Just follow me." Nyf took a box off a nearby table with all the stuff Kallista needed and headed for a staircase. Kallista gently grabbed Nyf by the shoulder and she stopped. "Yeah?" Kallista swallowed hard. "I just need to make sure. You swear that what I've told you will stay between us? Because… I've been getting some dirty looks around the city, like people are waiting for me to slip up and give them any reason to burn me." Nyf smiled warmly. "I swear on my life, I'll take your secret to the grave." She patted Kallista on the shoulder before heading downstairs. "Good cuz' ill rip your throat out if you don't..." "What?" "Nothing!"

Pretty soon things were almost ready, Kallista had drawn the ritual circle on the stone floor of the basement using white sand. The outer circle surrounding the pentagram was lightly sprinkled with a mixture of crushed bone and ash, two raven feathers were placed on the left and right extremities of the circle, relative to where Kallista was standing. Slowly walking around the circle, Kallista picked the petals off of a flower known as dragons tongue and placed them on the crushed bone and ash mixture in precise intervals before throwing aside the stem, grabbing a ceremonial dagger and stepping into the middle of the ritual circle, careful not to disturb the designs in the fragile sand, she kneeled. "You should get far away. If anything happens I don't want you getting caught in the crossfire." Nyf nodded and pulled her chair to a far corner in the room before sitting down and watching intently.

Kallista took a deep sigh and started, using the dagger she cut a small clipping of her hair and set it down right in front of her. Then using the tip of the dagger, she poked at her right index finger and let a drop of blood pool before it dripped and landed on the white sand. Setting down the dagger, and starting to mumble a sentence from the book, the drop of blood started to spread through the sand, causing it to change to a deep red before the entire thing solidified into a rusted piece of iron, the room suddenly felt a few degrees hotter as the outer rim of the now iron ritual circle started to glow bright orange then erupted in flames that blocked Kallista from Nyf's view momentarily. Kallista reflexively crouched and pulled her arms over her head to shield herself from the fire, it was hot but strangely enough didn't burn or even singe her clothing. Soon all the flames started to die down, except for a certain patch directly in front of her. As the rest of the flames continued to die down, the patch in front of her became more and more defined as the shape of a person. Kallista tried to stand up and get back but it felt like her body was suddenly made of lead. The humanoid fire spirit turned around to face her, it snapped its fingers, which didn't make sense at all because it was made of fire, but as soon as it did Kallista felt normal again and she quickly stood up. "You rang…?" The fire spirit had an uncharacteristically soothing voice, like it wanted people to let their guard down around it. The spirit circled around slowly, never crossing in from its boarder to the inner part of the ritual circle. "I'm sure you know why I went through the trouble of bringing you here." The fire spirit, or infernal spirit as it should be called, nodded. "You're power hungry, just like the rest. Why is it always the Tieflings? Your kind already has enough of a bad reputation in this world, why do you seek to make it worse?" "I only wish for enough power to defend myself with. I have no other needs for it. If in my wake I do some good for those around me, then that's just a bonus." The spirit continued to swirl around slowly. "I can feel a dark energy radiating off you. You're hell-bent, I can tell, but nothing is set in stone. Yet." Kallista nodded slowly at that statement as the infernal spirit circled around once more and stopped behind her. "You know great power comes at great cost." She nodded. "What… what do you want?" It grinned and wrapped its arm around her shoulder, again strangely the fire didn't burn. "I'm sure you know what I want." Kallista reflexively tensed up and pulled away. "Gah! Pervert!" The spirit growled. "No, you stupid mortal I meant your soul!" That didn't change matters much. "Oh… I'm not sure if that's better or not…" "Great power comes at great cost. I warned you, Tiefling." Kallista wrapped her arms around herself. Unsure of what to think. The spirit drew closer. "There is… one other option." Kallista looked up at him.

"I never said it _had_ to be your soul"

**/Fin/**

**To be continued (eventually) in part 3.**


	3. A Small Update

Hello to anyone who stumbles across this story and reads this!

I'd just like to point out that I realize it's been awhile since chapter two was updated but this story has not been abandoned. I have plans for a third chapter but I am more likely to scrap the entire story and restart. Since I've uploaded those I've had time to think them over and in retrospect I feel I'm rushing plot too much and certain things aren't being explained at all or as fully as I'd like them to be.

I write purely as a side-side hobby are rarely get a chance to sit down and write, but I do plan come back to this in the near future! I humbly request that if the first two chapters even slightly entertained you, to please follow the story to be notified of the next update, also it means the world to me to see that even one person is interested in what I'm putting out. Even as I'm writing this I'm leaning towards a total rewrite of the last two chapters and will most likely split them into more.

Again thank you for reading this and expect another update sometime between now and February.


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